Job Description

At Discover, be part of a culture where diversity, teamwork and collaboration reign. Join a company that is just as employee-focused as it is on its customers and is consistently awarded for both. We’re all about people, and our employees are why Discover is a great place to work. Be the reason we help millions of consumers build a brighter financial future and achieve yours along the way with a rewarding career.

WHO WE ARE:

Discover is more than a credit card. At its core, Discover is a software company. Our customers and Partners demand products/services that help them spend smarter and achieve a brighter financial future. These products/services are built and supported by our software teams. We have fun at work and live these values:

One customer. The person using the product is who matters.

Teams get it done. You won’t be sitting in a corner on your own – it’s a collective effort.

Seek to understand. Listen first, ask why, and then reach a conclusion.

Progress over perfection. Try new ideas and be comfortable with failing fast.

No spectators. Expect to tackle tough problems and to challenge the status quo.

We are looking for a Senior Principal Technical Product Manager to join our team at Discover’s headquarters office, located at 2500 Lake Cook Rd, Riverwoods, IL 60015.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

People don’t solely rely on physical credit/debit cards anymore. They want digital payment options. Specifically options on their phone or during secure digital checkout experiences (websites, apps, etc.). Why not join a team that is at the core of shaping the future of Payments? In this position, you will be a leader in our Digital Payments technology domain. Your talents will allow you to contribute, if not shape, our Business and Technology outcomes.

Always wanted to have your change agent voice heard? We love to listen. We want you to help create and break-down product/platform efforts into successful execution-ready plans. We need your talents to help ensure our outcomes are aligning to the needs of our Customers and Partners. Most rewarding, you will work with the leading mobile payment players in the world while actively contribute to the developer experience by enhancing current solution patterns and defining new ones. All cutting edge work leveraging the latest technologies in the industry.

We embrace change and evolution, both in our staff and platforms. We are building new payment systems that allow us to leverage modern technologies (Cloud, Big Data, Open Source, Event Driven real time processing) and approaches to delivery (Scaled Agile, CI/CD, TDD + BDD) that will enable us to produce software and systems to support our business and adapt to change within the fast paced FinTech world.

The Technical Product Manager (TPM) is a leader of strategy, planning and execution. The Digital Payments TPM will collaborate closely with Technology, Product and Operations teams to define and maintain the strategy, vision and roadmap for Digital Payments. This individual should be passionate about building scalable, secure and highly reliable, mission-critical software in a fast-paced agile environment.

Successful candidates will be highly adaptable, possess strong interpersonal and organizational skills, as well as be able to effectively manage multiple work streams. An ideal candidate for this position will have more than three years of technical product and/or product management experience with an ability to think tactically as well as strategically. A background working in a payments environment is highly desirable.

Responsible for developing, maintaining, and presenting the vision and roadmap for the value stream products or services. Creates the vision based on a thorough understanding of customer needs, working with both business initiative owners and technology teams. Guides both requirements and the work through the portfolio grooming, program grooming, and prioritization meetings by taking responsibility for “content decisions” and what gets implemented. Empowered to make fast decisions about the initiatives, with input from VPs and Initiative Owners, and other key stakeholders. Ensures the Product Owners are synthesizing business objectives and Agile development principles in order to develop features for key initiatives.

Responsibilities:

• Support Senior Digital Payments Architects in defining the current and future architecture for our Digital Payment Platform.
• Partner with Senior Digital Payments Architects to ensure ownership is established for all key architectural areas of our Digital Payment Platform
• Collaborate with technology, operations and products to identify requirements, converting them to functional specs, prioritizing, and driving execution using agile methodologies.
• Be the customer voice to the Digital Payments technology team, including a deep passion for satisfying customer needs and influencing design and priority appropriately.
• Partner with Product Management and Operations to define and maintain the overall Digital Payments strategy and vision, including adjusting in response to changing market, customer and/or organizational needs.
• Own, maintain, and socialize the Digital Payments technical roadmap as well as collaborate with business product management teams to create an overall Digital Payments roadmap.
• Help break down initiatives into prioritized features with Acceptance Criteria, and manages the program pipeline (backlog) of these features, for every release and iteration.
• Ensure technical backlog is sufficiently groomed, prioritized and ready for execution.
• Partner with business product management to define, refine, and ensure the intake process is optimized and being adhered to for all work
• Define, monitor and measure product metrics and KPIs, incorporate learnings into product definition and development process
• Partner with business product management to ensure product owners are synthesizing business objectives and agile development principles in order to develop features for key initiatives.
• Provide mentoring for product owners and architects responsible for shaping the landscape of Digital Payments for Discover
• Inspire our Business Technology function to drive a culture of quality, innovation and best practice within Digital Payments
• Support initiatives for our key customers/partners of Discover’s Digital Payment Platform
• Learn new technologies and champion the adoption of technology that deliver customer value
• Promote a culture that enables software delivery teams to be cross-functional and autonomous
• Communicate effectively with both the Discover team and external partners to understand specific system requirements
• Be a student of the Digital Payments industry, understanding the overall direction of market and trends
• Organize and participate in functions with other departments, town halls, lunch and learns
• Develops and communicates the product vision and roadmap. Adjusts and responds to changing market, customer and/or organizational needs, working closely with business teams and initiative owners.
• Supports the whole program and teams through the clarification of business needs, direction, and features.
• Helps break down initiatives into prioritized features with Acceptance Criteria, and manages the program pipeline (backlog) of these features, for every release and iteration.
• Provides issue management, risk assessments, risk mitigation, cost analysis, and minimum viable product evaluations.

#LI-MF1

Minimum Qualifications

At a minimum, here’s what we need from you:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Information Technology, Business, Marketing, Finance, or related field
• 4+ years of experience in Financial Services, Technology, Customer Service, Marketing, Operations, Project Management, Scaled Agile or Agile Development Project Management, Product Owner, Technology Architect, Software Development, or related field
• In lieu of a degree, 6+ years of experience in Project Management, Scaled Agile or Agile Development Project Management, Technology Architect, Software Development, or related field

Preferred Qualifications

If we had our say, we’d also look for:

• 2+ years of experience working in an agile environment
• 6+ years of experience in Project Management, Scaled Agile or Agile Development Project Management, Product Owner, Technology Architect, Software Development, or related field
• SaFe
• 4+ years of relevant hands-on experience in product management
• 2+ years of relevant exposure to the mobile payments
• Strong desire and aptitude to be very hands-on with data and reporting.
• Be very comfortable articulating, presenting and influencing key stake holders and leaders of the organizations to pursue new ideas and challenge status quo.
• Mentoring and leadership skills
• High degree of business acumen and technical competency; ability to balance and bridge technology and business needs; project and program management.
• Ability to lead through organizational change and ambiguity.
• Reputation for being a collaborative thought partner and business leader, skilled at establishing formal and informal networks within the company.

Discover Financial Services is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, among other things, or as a qualified individual with a disability.